Shadowed Eden
Shadowed Eden
Katie Clark
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Shadowed Eden
COPYRIGHT 2015 by Katie Clark
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Pelican Ventures, LLC except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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Contact Information: [email protected]
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James translation, public domain.
Cover Art by
Nicola Martinez
Watershed Books, a division of Pelican Ventures, LLC
www.pelicanbookgroup.com
PO Box 1738 *Aztec, NM * 87410
Watershed Books praise and splash logo is a trademark of Pelican Ventures, LLC
Publishing History
First Watershed Edition, 2016
Paperback Edition ISBN 978-1-61116-489-3
Electronic Edition ISBN 978-1-61116-480-0
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
To Micheal, Emma, and Ashlyn; and to the greatest big brother I ever had, for all the brainstorming help.
What People are Saying
“Shadowed Eden is a unique and intriguing tale that will keep the reader guessing and turning pages to find out the secrets of this mysterious story, and the suspense doesn't stop until its surprising end! I highly recommend it.” ~ Melanie Dickerson, award-winning YA author of
The Merchant's Daughter
“A truly original premise
, Shadowed
Eden
, is an exciting supernatural adventure filled with danger, redemption, and a cast of teenage characters that I grew to love. I enjoyed Clark's story and look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.” ~ Jill Williamson, author of
From Darkness Hid
and
Captives
Part 1
Genesis 3:1
“
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”
1
Avery
Avery watched from the tarmac as the pilot taxied down the dirt runway. The same plane had just brought her and the rest of the youth group to Iraq, and it was already leaving them behind.
Warm air from the jets sent her dark, wavy hair flying, and she brushed it from her face to keep from missing the takeoff. Once the plane was gone, they would be stuck here. Stuck in Iraq with only a few vans to cart them around.
The airplane roared into the sky, and even the locals on the airstrip stopped to watch.
Avery should have felt nervous at being left behind. Being stuck in a foreign country with no way out. Instead, she smiled. No one at the mission would keep their distance because of her past.
“Can I carry that for you?” a man asked. His accent was thickly Middle Eastern, and his caramel-colored skin glistened with sweat.
He reached for her bag but Avery pulled back. “That's OK. I'll carry it.”
The man lifted his eyebrows but nodded. “As you wish.” He sidestepped to the next student on the mission trip, and Avery glanced around for Daddy. He'd made it clear she was to ride with him. Avery had insisted on coming on this mission trip, in spite of his objections. He would chaperone even if she didn't come, and he didn't want her in danger, or so he said.
Putting up a fight wasn't her usual persona, but she was glad now she'd done it. Getting away from home was exactly what she needed to get a fresh start, and the desert area of Iraq was about as different from the rolling green hills of Alabama as she could imagine. Instead of cookie-cutter grocery stores and brand new cars, tarps covered roughhewn poles where locals sold fruits, clothes, and meats. A few vehicles dotted the space around the measly airport, but the newest model looked as if it debuted at least a decade ago. Besides that, there was the humidityâor the lack of it. Already the dry desert air was frizzing her hair and drying out her pores.
Chad, the youth leader, stepped to the front of the group. “Load up!”
Avery hauled her luggage to Daddy's van, and the man from earlier took it from her hands. He quirked an eyebrowâprobably wondering why she hadn't let him have it to begin with. She wasn't sure herself, except this was her chance at freedom. At doing things her way without feeling ashamed.
“Hey buddy, here you go!”
Avery turned in time to see a boy from her group toss a duffel bag at the luggage guy. The man reached for it, but he was too late and it toppled into the other stack sitting on the pavement. It knocked the neat pile into a mess.
Bradley cackled and turned away, and Avery shook her head. Unbelievable.
Turning back to the luggage guy, she moved to help. “I'm sorry about him. He's an idiot.”
“Thank you,” the man said.
“You're welcome.” She smiled and restacked a few pieces while the man arranged them on top of the van.
After making sure her luggage was secure, Avery climbed inside the fifteen passenger van and found a seat at the window in the second row. Other kids piled in behind her, last of all a girl from her group.
Mallory looked around for a seat, her red hair frizzing as badly as Avery's. The van was almost full. Their eyes met and Avery managed a smile. She pointed to the empty seat beside her, but Mallory's eyes darted away. She moved to sit on the first row with the other girls.
Avery sighed and turned back to the window.
The driverâthe same man who'd loaded her luggageâclimbed inside and started the vehicle.
Avery smiled as the van revved up, and the rest of the group broke into an excited chatter. Daddy still hadn't made his way to her van. Maybe he'd be riding in the other vehicle after all. She readjusted herself to account for the empty seat beside her, but just before they pulled away, the door opened and Daddy climbed in. He smiled at her and maneuvered into the empty seat.
“Everything's been squared away,” he said. His eyes glowed with some kind of excitement that she wasn't used to seeing in him.
Avery opened her mouth to answer him, but Bradley's voice broke through. “How long until we're at the village?”
Daddy twisted toward the back seat and held up two fingers. “Two hours. You guys are in for a treat.”
Avery managed a weak smile before turning toward the window. People might warm up to her if her own father didn't ignore her. And if he hadn't practically institutionalized her.
This trip would change all that. She would prove to him she could make it in his world.
They pulled away from the airport and started down a pockmarked, dirt road. A few of the others had brought ear buds, but Avery's were still packed in her suitcase.
She took a deep, cleansing breath. The ear buds didn't matter. She was too busy dreaming of all the things the next two weeks would hold. Today was the beginning of her “start over.”
She sighed as they rumbled into the desert. The jostling of the huge vehicle over the rough roads rattled her teeth, but she didn't have the strength to move. This trip had been way too long. Her muscles ached, her eyelids drooped, and a huge yawn erupted from her lips.
“Tired?” Daddy asked.
Avery turned enough to give him a small smile. “Unlike you, oh, mighty archeologist, most of us are not used to travelling the globe.”
He smiled and patted her leg. “Get some sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there.”
Avery relaxed against the side of the van, but she kept one eye on Daddy. He'd said more to her in the last two days than he had in the entire year before.
She glanced at the other van in the entourage. It drove behind hers on the crazy, unregulated Iraqi road.
“I thought there were checkpoints and stuff around here. Where are all the roadside bombs?”
Leave it to Bradley to ask such insensitive questions. Avery kept her eye roll to herself.
“There certainly might be bombs on this road. We could hit one at any moment.” The driver's deadpan answer silenced the entire van.
Except Avery. She snickered.
The driver caught her eye in the rearview mirror and winked at her.
Chatter resumed a moment later, and Avery tuned it out to watch the desert pass. The sun had begun to sink closer to the sand, and the reflecting light played tricks on her eyes, making it seem as if the sand moved.
No, it wasn't the sand. It was almost as if the air movedâlike she could see the wind. She shook her head and blinked, and when she opened her eyes everything was back to normal.
She glanced again at the other vehicle. Some of the occupants were teens in her own youth group, but others had come from churches across Alabama. The
Mission: Education
trip was a statewide effort.
Luca was in that other van.
Avery worked to calm the storm his presence put inside her.
The road turned suddenly, and the van jerked to follow it. Avery gasped as it rocked hard, and her head hit the window. The sun glared off Luca's van, blinding her, and she turned away.
“My apologies,” the driver said in his thick accent. Dark eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, and she looked down.
“The wind is picking up,” Daddy said.
Avery followed his gaze. Clouds of sand whipped through the air.
“Only a mild sandstorm,” the driver said. “It happens all the time.”
Avery listened to his carefully spoken English. It was impeccable. She'd been taking Spanish for four years and still spoke it in a broken lilt.
Daddy spoke seven languagesâwhich he reminded her of often. He never failed to let her know all the ways she disappointed him.
The van jerked a second time, making a few of the others shout.
Avery held on to the seat handle for support.
The radio on the dashboard crackled to life. “Driver two, come in.”
Avery craned her neck but there was nothing to see. Too bad it wasn't like a GPS where she could read the information for herself.
“I'm here,” their driver said.
“The storm is getting worse ahead. How would you like to proceed?”
“Pull over,” Daddy said. “Let's discuss this away from the youth.”
Avery glanced at him. Of course the drivers would do as he saidâas the only one of the group who had ever been to Iraq before, he was the unspoken leaderâbut stopping in the desert in the middle of a sandstorm didn't seem like a great idea to her.
After a few moments, both vans had stopped in the road and the adults gathered in between them.
Avery watched the road ahead, scanning the sandy street for oncoming cars. She hadn't seen a single one pass ever since they left the airport, but how would they know if one came upon them now?
Sand swirled around them like dirt tornadoes. The drivers had pulled thick scarves over their faces and sunglasses over their eyes. Daddy followed suit, ever prepared. But the other chaperones dodged sandblasts by jerking away or holding their hands over their faces.
At this rate, they would never reach the village before dark. Her sweater was packed away on top of the van in the towering bundle of luggage. How would she survive a cold desert night?
The group of adults moved toward the other vehicle, and Daddy climbed into it. Someone else climbed out and darted through the sandstorm. Avery's van door pulled open, and Luca appeared in front of her. He took the only open seat, which just happened to be the one beside Avery, the one Daddy had left unoccupied.
This wasn't good.
“The other driver knows the area better,” Luca said. Of course, he knew she wanted to know what was happening. “Your dad is riding ahead with him, and we're going to follow.”